El Camino College faculty lash out at school trustees over pay

El Camino College President Thomas M. Fallo listens to El Camino faculty as they confront the community college board at a meeting over their lack of raises and other labor issues at El Camino College. Monday March 17, 2014. (Thomas R Cordova / Staff Photographer)

Sean Donnell, President of the Teachers Union, speaks as the El Camino faculty confront the college board at a meeting over their lack of raises and other labor issues at El Camino College. Monday March 17, 2014. (Thomas R Cordova / Staff Photographer)

El Camino College faculty and staff showed up in force at Monday evening’s school trustees meeting to voice frustration with contract negotiations and chastise the board for triggering a “toxic” campus environment.

More than 75 faculty and staff members, wearing red armbands printed with “5%” to show their solidarity and desire for a 5 percent raise, told board members that morale has hit an all-time low as the faculty union and school district have come to an impasse in negotiations.

“The situation here, the animosity, is the worst I’ve seen,” said longtime staffer Sam Abrams. “The people are angry at the lack of respect, the lack of camaraderie. I recommend that you walk around and talk to people. It’s toxic here.”

In recent weeks, faculty members have sent angry letters to the school board, started informational picketing and taken part in protest walks. Their current contract expires in 2015.

They argue that they have gone several years without a raise, while the school’s president was given a sizable salary increase last year.

Thomas Fallo, the school’s president since 1995, received a $40,000 raise in 2013 after he announced his intent to retire, making him one of the highest-paid community college presidents in California.

According to Fallo’s most recent contract, which ends in January 2017, his base salary, starting at $312,905 on Feb. 1, 2013, will increase by 5 percent annually. Fallo also receives $916.66 a month for an automobile allowance, $1,000 per month for expenses and reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses related to community and school functions. The increases will bring Fallo’s total salary to $345,000 by February 2015.

William Beverly, president of the El Camino Community College District Board of Trustees, said that when Fallo announced his retirement, the board, as a group, agreed the district could not maintain its stability if Fallo left.

“In essence, if you want to keep him, you pay the going rate,” he said. “That’s the rate it takes for him to stay and not go someplace else.”

Beverly said the faculty’s claim that instructors have not received raises since 2008 is a “misrepresentation.”

“It’s not true that nobody got raises. There is a step-and-column system in effect” that provides pay increases based on the duration of employment and accumulation of degrees and units, he said.

While the faculty has pointed to the community college district’s significant reserve as a potential source for a 5 percent raise, Beverly said, the fund is not sustainable.

Advertisement

“People forget we’re in the position we’re in now because the people of California passed a temporary sales tax directed to help fund education,” he said. “That increase expires. We are being conservative. We’re preparing for the expiration of that temporary sales tax.”

Beverly noted that the board has managed to avoid layoffs over the past several years, as neighboring community college districts have laid off employees.

“We made a decision collectively that it was more important to keep everybody working than it was to give some people more money,” he said. “We could have laid off 10 percent of our workforce and given everyone on the salary schedule a very significant raise.”

Beverly said the teachers have painted the board as “terrible people who don’t care about teachers.”

“In fact, the opposite is true,” he said. “We care about all our employees. We want to make sure none of them have to take a furlough or be laid off.”

But faculty members argued Monday night that it is time for teachers and staff to be fairly compensated for the work they put in, as the economy continues to recover. Faculty members say they were insulted by the district’s offer of a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase.

“We are the school’s greatest asset. We keep the lights on. We keep the doors open,” said Sean Donnell, president of the El Camino College Federation of Teachers union. “Without us faculty and classified staff, you don’t have an El Camino College. ... Make us an equitable offer.”

In a recent press release, the teachers union noted that the number of degrees and certificates issued by the school increased by 20 percent from 2008-09 to 2012-13. A year ago, the college was placed on warning status by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges for failing to increase and strengthen its use of so-called student learning outcome assessments to meet state standards.

“(They) essentially imposed an unfunded mandate that requires faculty to do additional work to fulfill onerous requirements,” the release said. “Put simply, the faculty is being asked to do significantly more work and is not being paid for it.”

Twenty-year English professor Debra Breckheimer emphasized the hours that faculty members put in outside of school hours, helping the school lift its retention and transfer rates and showcasing the school to the community.

“I find myself in disbelief that we have to grovel for a raise after not having one for six years,” she said. “Compensate us. Let us feel valuable. What we do is not easy. ... President Fallo deserved to be compensated. We deserve to be compensated.”

Beverly told the faculty that the board would not bargain at the microphone and that no decisions could be made outside of the negotiation room. Once an official impasse is declared, a fact-finding mediator is brought in to work with the two parties.